Geography Scholars Going Places

May 07, 1989

NEWPORT NEWS — A talking, 3,300-year-old king, models of Mayan pyramids and other projects filled the Denbigh High School library and cafeterias in the Virginia Geographical Fair Saturday.

"We had 490 entries. We had schools from Christiansburg, Blacksburg, Falls Church, West Springfield and, of course, from the Tidewater area," said Gilbert W. Crippen, a geography teacher at Denbigh who helped sponsor the statewide fair.

Students who entered projects competed for 195 awards. Projects were designed to advance or show knowledge of the world and its people.

Entries also included projects in U.S. history and government, world history and psychology, Crippen said.

"Geography takes precedence," but the discipline has broadened to embrace those other topics, he said.

One of the more remarkable entries was submitted by a student who dressed up a mannequin as Ramses II, king of Egypt from 1290 to 1223 B.C. and installed a tape recorder inside. The "king" gave accounts of his reign to visitors.

Warwick High students submitted models of the Mayan pyramids of Central America.

Schools in Hampton Roads fared well in the fair's judging, Crippen said. Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools' entrants won 11, York County schools' 15 and students and classes from nine public schools in Newport News won 50 awards.

Denbigh High won 26. Orcutt Baptist Church's school won 10 awards and was one of the few private schools that entered, Crippen said.

There were no entrants from Hampton, Suffolk, Isle of Wight or Middle Peninsula schools, he said.